Shuttle Zig-Zag Photo -- Nutty Website says, F-k you, copyright owner

http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/20...31columbia.htm
Mar 31, 2006
Columbia Disaster Revisited

Today we are returning to our Picture of the Day one of the most important
images among the hundreds of images we have discussed in these pages. On
February 23, 2005 our topic was, "Space Shuttle Struck by Megalightning?"
The accompanying picture is seen above. It shows the plasma trail of the
shuttle Columbia on reentry about 63 kilometers above the earth, and it
seems to show an electric discharge striking the shuttle's plasma trail. For
anyone knowledgeable on the upper atmospheric electrical environment of the
Earth the question raised is all too obvious. Could this discharge have
caused the disastrous breakup of the shuttle, leading to the death of the
seven astronauts?

Shortly after we posted the story, the amateur astronomer who had taken the
picture contacted us. He insisted that we remove the photograph. So we did.

Now we are returning the image to our published files because it is not in
the public interest that the image be ignored or forgotten--the fate of so
many uncomfortable images in the space sciences. Perhaps, in the end, the
issue of public interest will have to be resolved by a court, and if we are
instructed by a court to remove the photograph we will do so.


JimO's comments:

I've looked into this image extensively, and talked with lots of other folks
who did so, too. The zig-zag is the shaking camera on the tripod as the time
exposure is activated prior to settling into position.



What misleads observers is this: the white streak across the sky is the
persistent ion trail left behind a passing shuttle entry, NOT the motion of
the point-source fireball across the time-exposed field of view. So once the
camera settled into position with the shuttle ALREADY midway through the
field of view, the already-existing white persistent trail of its earlier
passage ALSO registered on the optical imaging memory.



You really have to see this effect yourself to appreciate how startling (and
unexpected) it is. So getting fooled by misinterpreting the source of the
visual pieces of the image is excusable. What's not excusable is for
conspiracy nuts to shut their minds to real physics and careful
investigative techniques, in order to propagandize an idiotic pet theory.

was Columbia doing tether experiments

Jim Oberg wrote:
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/20...31columbia.htm
Mar 31, 2006
Columbia Disaster Revisited

Today we are returning to our Picture of the Day one of the most important
images among the hundreds of images we have discussed in these pages. On
February 23, 2005 our topic was, "Space Shuttle Struck by Megalightning?"
The accompanying picture is seen above. It shows the plasma trail of the
shuttle Columbia on reentry about 63 kilometers above the earth, and it
seems to show an electric discharge striking the shuttle's plasma trail. For
anyone knowledgeable on the upper atmospheric electrical environment of the
Earth the question raised is all too obvious. Could this discharge have
caused the disastrous breakup of the shuttle, leading to the death of the
seven astronauts?

No. The actual story is in Philip Chien's "Columbia - Final Voyage"
which includes the actual photo (not a lousy screen grab off the
Megalightning special) and a description by Peter Goldie, the
photographer who took the photo.

The "artifact" in Goldie's photo was just a gust of wind which caused a
tiny amount of movement in the camera (a fraction of an inch) which
caused a wobbly pattern, just as every other photographer who's taken
long exposure photos of something bright at night has done by accident
many times.


Bob Stevens